There are various loop start systems employed in the operation of pay telephones to be activated by the deposit of coins therein, two generally recognized types being adapted to use with the present invention, and namely the semi-post-pay and pre-pay operations. Heretofore, the coin vaults of these telephones have been collected on the basis of experience and separately operative alarm systems provided to protect against burglary. The coin operation requires the deposit of coins which pass through a rejector for accepting genuine coins that operate tone burst means identifiable with coins of distinct denomination i.e. 5.cent., 10.cent. and 25.cent.. The accepted coins are passed through or are held temporarily in a hopper, and in the latter case to be released by positive voltage applied to a coin relay (pre-pay) and collected in the vault, or returned by negative voltage applied thereto. Pre-pay systems require the deposit of an initial coin before placing a call, to be held in the hopper and returned or collected by means of the coin relay, as when the call is completed.
When a pay phone call is made, the coin tone bursts have been tabulated by operator personnel or the like, and with a sufficient monetary deposit, or by the establishment of credit, the circuit is established by said operator through the line equipment, so that the call can be completed. The dialed telephone number passes through various equipment in a central office or offices until it reaches the connector of the number dialed, whereupon a last mentioned connector activates the ringing generator to ring the telephone instrument of the number called. An object of this invention is to use existing telephone equipment and systems, and preferably the pre-pay loop start system; and taking particular advantage of the coin tone generator and coin relay functions provided in the existent telephone instruments. For example, the coin tone generator is activated by coins passing through a coin switch module to generate bursts of tone corresponding by number to the denomination of the coins deposited, and the coin relay is an electrical switching device having a coil winding and armature actuated thereby with positive or negative D.C. voltage to disburse the coins. Heretofore, the tones were transmitted over the telephone lines to enable the operator to recognize the coin denomination by the number of bursts. With the present invention, the tone bursts are transmitted to counter means and the count thereof transmitted therefrom to be tabulated in memory means; immediately tabulated in semi-post-pay operations, and held in abeyance means for subsequent tabulation in pre-pay operations.
Heretofore, the date of collection and the amount of money collected from pay phones has been noted on an activity sheet for each particular pay phone. Using these facts as experience, the collection period for a phone is either lengthened or shortened, so that the telephone coin collection vaults do not become overfilled with the result of phone inoperation. For example, some phones do not maintain good collection periods, such as those located at or near beaches, military bases, seasonal resorts, theatres, schools, etc., and consequently these phones often become inoperative because of over filled vaults. It is an object of this invention to provide a system wherein the use experience factor of phones is no longer the criteria, whereby the coinage in each phone will be available in the form of instantly available tabulations, and for the advantageous purpose of being collected before they have been overfilled, thereby removing all guess work from the collection process.
Heretofore, coin telephone alarms have been of two types. The first being the local noise alarm and the second being a silent alarm. Local alarms are activated by a switch mounted in the coin telephone, and they are audible for three to five hundred feet. Silen alarms switch on an alert in the central but have the disadvantage of overhead wiring and a second line run which are easily detected. In any case there are seldom enough cable pairs available to provide for all coin telephones in a given area, and as a result the cost and complexity of these silent alarm systems makes them impractical. On the contrary the anti-burglar function of the present invention is very practical since there is no extra overhead wiring and because there is no requirement for a second cable pair. Accordingly, the present invention provides a signal generator activated by a vault switch to transmit a distinguishable alarm signal over the normal telephone lines and thereby recycle the memory means; so that when a collection or burglary does occur the amount of money in the pay phone is known in one of the memory means and a concurrent alarm is activated in the central office, by an audible means or by illumination of a light emitting diode.
The function of the system is to preserve the total tabulation of memory means, whether the coin telephone is deliberately collected or burglarized and thereby recording the coinage in the vault at that point in time. The vaults of pay telephones are characterized by a collection box that is removable and not replaceable until reprocessed. In practice, reprocessing of the coin collection boxes is done in a collection center, an accounting office, where the boxes are opened and a coin count is made, whereupon the said boxes are keyed and/or reset for subsequent insertion into a pay phone. An unprocessed box is not reinsertable, and the aforesaid vault switch is inoperable during insertion of the box; only removal of said box will actuate the vault switch. The present invention eliminates the need to count the coinage from each collection box, thereby increasing, more than tripling, the counting ability in the coin collection centers, to be limited only by the per hour capability of present day coinage counters. Inherently, the office work involved for individual vault counting is eliminated and the revenue comingled and forwarded in common to the counting facility to be conformed with the computerized accounting.